Song of Solomon 8 DBY
Summary: The woman wishes her beloved were like a brother she could kiss openly without shame and bring to her mother's house, again repeating the refrain against awakening love before its time. A poem on love's power follows, one of the book's best-known passages: "love is strong as death... many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it" (v. 6-7), and love cannot be bought with all a man's wealth. The scene shifts to a memory of a young sister with no breasts yet, and brothers debating how to guard her depending on whether she is a "wall" or a "door"; the woman answers that she is a wall whose breasts are like towers, bringing her beloved contentment, alongside a note about Solomon's own vineyard let out to keepers. The book closes with the beloved wanting to hear her voice and her final words urging him to be swift, "like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices" (v. 14).
1Oh that thou wert as my brother, That sucked the breasts of my mother! Should I find thee without, I would kiss thee; And they would not despise me.
2I would lead thee, bring thee into my mother's house; Thou wouldest instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine, Of the juice of my pomegranate.
3His left hand would be under my head, And his right hand embrace me.
4I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,...Why should ye stir up, why awake [my] love, till he please?
5Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved? I awoke thee under the apple-tree: There thy mother brought thee forth; There she brought thee forth [that] bore thee.
6Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol: The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, Flames of Jah.
7Many waters cannot quench love, Neither do the floods drown it: Even if a man gave all the substance of his house for love, It would utterly be contemned.
8We have a little sister, And she hath no breasts: What shall we do for our sister In the day when she shall be spoken for? —
9If she be a wall, We will build upon her a turret of silver; And if she be a door, We will enclose her with boards of cedar.
10I am a wall, and my breasts like towers; Then was I in his eyes as one that findeth peace.
11Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon: He let out the vineyard unto keepers; Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand silver-pieces.
12My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: The thousand [silver-pieces] be to thee, Solomon; And to the keepers of its fruit, two hundred.
13Thou that dwellest in the gardens, The companions hearken to thy voice: Let me hear [it].
14Haste, my beloved, And be thou like a gazelle or a young hart Upon the mountains of spices.
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